


The First Man

by Zilchtastic



Category: Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-07
Updated: 2010-02-07
Packaged: 2017-10-07 02:32:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/60495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zilchtastic/pseuds/Zilchtastic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rufus has seen men die before, in flashes on the vid screen and even from far above the ground in a chopper, nose pressed to the glass, trying to pick out <i>his</i> people from <i>their</i> people in the chaos. But even that was distant, unreal, almost antiseptic. Death is the long-distance lover he's never yet met in person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The First Man

Rufus has seen men die before, in flashes on the vid screen and even from far above the ground in a chopper, nose pressed to the glass, trying to pick out _his_ people from _their_ people in the chaos. But even that was distant, unreal, almost antiseptic. Death is the long-distance lover he's never yet met in person.

He kills his first man at fifteen.

There's a lot of blood. Rufus knew there'd be blood, he's read enough medical texts to know exactly what's beneath soft pink human skin, and where, but still, he feels vaguely surprised when he's sitting in a small lake of it, his pant legs soaked up to the knees in red, his shirtfront spattered like a really bad paintjob. The knife in his hands oozes blood across his knuckles, and the texture is watery yet viscous. He stares down at it, fascinated, not even minding the fact that his hands are shaking.

"Shit, kid, don't gotta carve him like a turkey," Reno says, tone condescending but expression vaguely alarmed. Rufus bristles at the tone-- _kid?_\-- without really recognizing the alarm or why it would be there.

(He doesn't yet know that this is Reno's way, and will always be Reno's way, and that someday he'll prefer all the disrespect and backtalk to the sycophantic bowing and scraping he gets from most everyone else.)

The man on the floor makes a gurgling noise. Through all the blood Rufus thinks he can see bone, and beyond that the slick dark pulse of what must be the heart.

He tosses the small dagger aside and looks up at Reno.

"Get me something bigger," he says.


End file.
